Hu Jia surveillance video, Gao Zhisheng detained again

Fresh off the press: A video of the secret police who watched over AIDS, environmental and democracy activist Hu Jia (胡嘉) day and night while they were under house arrest from July last year to March this year has just been released (h/t to CDT).Who is Hu Jia and why are the powers-that-be watching over him? Perhaps the best summary of Hu’s trouble-making activities is found in a report by Jonathan Watts of the Guardian Unlimited when the 34 year old activist was barred from visiting the UK in a “pre-Olympic crackdown” earlier this year:

Three years ago, he was detained as he attempted to lay a wreath on Tiananmen square in memory of the victims of the 1989 massacre. In Henan province, he helped to expose the blood-selling scandal that left tens – possibly hundreds – of thousands of villagers with HIV/Aids.He is an unabashed admirer of the Dalai Lama, who Beijing accuses of “splittism”. Last year, he joined a hunger-strike relay by Chinese rights activists that was the first nationally coordinated protest since 1989.